Serum interferon-gamma is associated with longitudinal decline in lung function among asthmatic patients: the Normative Aging Study.

Background: Cytokines are important mediators of the asthmatic response. A retrospective pilot study showed that serum levels of interleukin (IL)-5 and interferon (IFN)-gamma were related to lung function decline among asthmatic patients over the preceding 3 years. To confirm these findings, we tested the hypothesis that serum cytokines are associated with longitudinal lung function decline.

Serum cytokine levels, cigarette smoking and airway responsiveness among pregnant women.

Background: Five to twenty percent of healthy, nonasthmatic individuals exhibit airway hyperreactivity. Because cytokines are important intermediates in airway responses, we investigated the relationship between serum cytokines and airway responsiveness in a well-characterized population of pregnant women.

Methods: We analyzed serum levels of interleukin-4 (IL-4), IL-5, IL-6, interferon-gamma (IFN-gamma), and granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) in frozen sera from 240 pregnant nonasthmatic subjects from a previous study of airway responsiveness and preterm labor for their relationship to methacholine challenge test results.

The relation between serum cytokine levels and common laboratory tests in healthy Japanese males.

Objectives: Cytokines are critical regulatory molecules that circulate in blood at measurable levels. However, the epidemiology of serum cytokine levels in healthy populations is still limited, particularly for Japanese populations. The objective of this study was to examine the relation between serum cytokine levels and common laboratory tests in a healthy Japanese population.